burn him while he slept. So he built another fire in a sort of
hollow at the base of the fourth rock, and after about an hour---during
which the squirrel was broiling deliciously---he raked away all
the hot ashes, and curled up on the dried warm ground. This proved
to be a fairly comfortable bed and, after eating his nicely browned
supper, and bathing his ankle again, he replenished the fire,
taking care that it should not spread, and lay down beside the
sheltering rock.

Twilight deepened into darkness, the stars appeared one by one in
the vast black dome above him, the forest was deathly still save
for the noise of the waterfall which drowned all other sounds.
Once, an owl, attracted by the fire, perched on a low overhanging
branch and stared into the flames with great blinking yellow eyes;
then, startled by an uneasy movement of the sleeper, it flew away
with a dismal hoot.

Ralph's dreams were troubled, a medley of combats with feathered
foes, of lengthy altercations with Bill Terrill, of frantic digging
in the ground for impossible gold. Twice he was wakened by twinges
of pain, and he lay there, open-eyed, gazing up through the branches
of the stars.

"There's the Pole star and the Pointers," he murmured, to divert
his mind from his suffering. "Of course, the Pointers go around
the North star once in twenty-four hours, so that makes a kind
of clock. I could find my way home by those stars if I had to,
but I can't walk, I can't walk!"

His voice trailed off into silence, and he fell asleep once more.